Abstract [en]

The hunting tradition is an example of speciesism – discrimination of an individual on the grounds of to which species it belongs. Hunting is justified by the presumption that the life of an animal is of a lesser value than the life of human being. But hunting is also a seemingly very male dominated and hetero-normative field. This text is a discussion around the parallels between hetero-normative structures and the hunting tradition, based on an examination on the language and attitudes in hunting magazines, and analyzed from a queer theoretic and antispeciesist perspective.

The examination of the texts are made from the categories of control, objectification and categorization, masculinity standardization, glorification of violence, and hierarchic structuring, which are all of them contributing to a speciesist view, and by such are crucial for the being and justification of hunting. Within these categories, I have then looked for parallels with hetero-normative and androcentric traditions.

The parallels proved to be many and often obvious, and were found within all of the examined fields – all of the examined fields which give possibility for the hunting tradition, are also fundamental for an androcentrically structured society and a continued oppression of non-hetero-normative persons.

In conclusion, traditions which are favouring predominant structures and which leads to oppression and lack of freedom for one group also risk to automatically affect other oppressed groups. And in reverse, rights won for one oppressed group may weaken the predominant structures overall, and by such also bring increased opportunities for other oppressed groups to claim their rights too.